I pay my utility bills at the convenience store but recently had to leave the country on emergency due to my mother passing away. As such I was late with my combined bill for Tokyo Gas (gas and electric) – a friend eventually collected the bill from my apartment and paid it at the convenience store but it was apparently a couple of weeks after the deadline. When I returned to my apartment yesterday the electricity had been disconnected. I called them up and they said my contract had been terminated and I couldn’t open a new one and I needed to call Tepco. However my Gas still works fine with Tokyo Gas.
I explained the situation and asked if I could appeal and open a new account given the circumstances and they said I couldn’t?
Have I been permanently blacklisted by Tokyo gas for electric, even if I move to another address, to is it just for this address? Is there anything that can be done – Thanks
11 comments
Never heard of being blacklisted, I’ve had to make new contracts at least twice.
Sure you understood them correctly?
You probably need to call tepco to renew the contract? You should probably call them rather then the gas company.
I had the electricity shut off multiple times and never had an issue
Pay your bills on time
You’ll need to make a new contract since your electricity was shut off, correct, but usually companies don’t refuse so maybe it’s their policy to? I haven’t heard of that before. But you should call TEPCO and just make a contract with them instead otherwise you’re going to be without electricity. If you’re going away you should arrange for your bills to be done by direct debit or someone to pay on your behalf or this will happen again if you’re too late.
Tokyo Gas is just a reseller for electricity. It’s possible that what happened is that since you had the gas and electricity bundled with Tokyo Gas, but Tokyo Gas had to tell Tepco to cut off your power, that Tokyo Gas can no longer bundle it up for you without you contacting Tepco to get back in good standing.
I hope you give us an update of what happens since I am in the same situation as you op.
This is specifically due to the deregulated electricity market. If you’d been with Tepco directly you’d just have to get current, call them up (its not automatic) and your power would be on a few hours later. Had it happen once before when I was out of the country longer than anticipated and it was just a trip to the convenience store and a phone call to Tepco (once I figured out the right call centre to contact – tepco has a ridiculous number of them).
Your contracted was nullified and you need to make a new one that’s all. No reason to get all dramatic.
This happened to me back in the day, several times. Just make a new contract and use your phone to make automatic payments from your bank.
This happened to me back in the day, several times. Just make a new contract and use your phone to make automatic payments from your bank.